Rising food prices nearing danger point: World Bank

World Bank president Robert Zoellick warned leaders of the top global economies Saturday that the world is reaching a danger point where soaring food prices threaten further political instability.

“I mentioned that we are reaching a danger point,” Zoellick said, adding that he had urged G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs meeting here to “put food first in 2011.”

Zoellick said rising prices would eventually result in increased food supplies but in the intervening couple of years, “there could be an awful lot of turmoil and governments could fall and societies could go into turmoil.”

Soaring food, fuel and other basic costs have been one of the key factors driving political unrest across the Middle East and North Africa which has forced the ouster of long-standing autocratic rulers in Egypt and Tunisia.